Whanganui firefighters battle Bell St house fire for the second time in a year

Firefighters are battling a fire in Whanganui's Bell St. Photo/ Stuart Munro

A house on Bell Street has caught fire for the second time in seven months.

Two crews of Whanganui firefighters arrived at the scene on Tuesday afternoon to discover a well-involved fire at the rear of the property and extinguished it in approximately 10 minutes.

Whanganui station officer Bryan Coskerie said the fire was being treated as suspicious.

"It was an unoccupied home so there's no real reason any fire should have started," Coskerie said.

"The fire's extinguished, we've got the fire investigator here, she's going into have a look and see what's happened."

John Penney's daughter lives next to the property and he travelled to the scene when she called him informing him of the fire.

"There was smoke coming out of the windows and I could smell it," Penney said.

"It burned sometime before Christmas, that was quite a big fire. Then the tenants supposedly left and the landlord said nobody was supposed to be there."

That fire occurred on July 27, 2018 and was believed to have been started by discarded cigarette butts leaving the home in a state of disrepair.

Penney contacted Whanganui District Council and Wanganui Fire Brigade with concerns about its long grass, vermin and damage.

The landowner was spoken to and Penney was told it was set to be demolished.

Penney said there were often street kids hanging around outside the house.